Hi everyone, I'm trying to look for help here as a last resort - I have a spooky case of my sound card simply not outputting anything, despite anything seemingly working flawless.

So here's what happened:

Windows 98 SE, 2x256 MB SDR-133, VIA C3 Nehemiah 1400 MHz, S3 ProSavage 32 MB shared memory IGP, 2x32 CF cards as system and media drives via IDE to CF adapter.

Has a PISA riser, formerly occupied by a Labway LWHA111800 sound card (ESS1868f + Admos QDSP700 chipset), sound was working.

I got the titular Guillemot Maxi Sound 64 Dynamic 3D (ESS 1868f + Dream SAM9407 chipset, 2MB RAM + 16 MB memory expansion) , put it into the riser instead of the other sound card, and there was no sound at next boot, which I more or less expected.

I deinstalled all ESS sound drivers from the device manager, ran the setup from the Guillemot Maxi Sound 64 Dynamic 3D driver CD, noticing that it installed audio software, but apparently no driver. After rebooting, Windows suddenly found the freshly installed card and automatically installed the drivers for it. One reboot later, I noticed I still did not hear the startup sound of Windows. Double checked all volume controls, no sound output at all.

I have since checked the device manager, which says the device is working, there are no resource conflicts (DMA 1 and 3, IRQ 5, E/A 220, 300, 388).

Made sure the sound system is still on, volume is high enough, it is connected to the correct sound card port etc.